In 1772 King George III granted Sir Thomas Wentworth of Bretton Hall, a country house in West Bretton, West Yorkshire, and 82 others, a parcel of 24,640 acres (9,970 ha) of land to be laid out as a plantation in the White Mountains. The plantation became the town of Carroll, and the southeast corner of the land retained the name "Bretton Woods", after the estate.[2]

The Mount Washington Hotel and Resort is one in the last surviving handful of New Hampshire grand hotels, and includes two golf courses, alpine and Nordic skiing, a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) spa, sled rides, dog sled rides, tennis, horseback riding and much more in its facilities.

The tracks of the Cog Railway and its associated buildings lie up the slope of Mount Washington, in nearby Thompson and Meserve's Purchase. The "Base Road" from Bretton Woods and Fabyan's is the preferred route to the lower end of the tracks (the Base Station of the Cog), except in those winters when the Mount Clinton Road is instead the only plowed road to their intersection. (The closing of the lower end of the Base Road had been traditional into 2004.) The Cog was operated during the winter seasons of 2004-2006 to take wilderness skiers partway up the mountain.